August 03, 2015

Giveaway: The Lost Gardens of Heligan, Cornwall

Step back in time and lose yourself in Europe's largest garden restoration; a world of romance, nostalgia and adventure awaits your discovery.

The Lost Gardens of Heligan has been on my list of gardens to visit for ages. This summer they kindly invited us to take a look around, so we drove the short distance from our base in Gwithian towards St Austell. The approach to the gardens is magical, as the road swings upwards along the coast offering tantalising glimpses of the sea below - the gardens are close to the bustling fishing village of Mevagissy and Pentewan beach, a great spot to collect sea glass if you visit at low tide.

Heligan is a true secret garden. Established in the 18th century, the garden thrived until 1914, when the outbreak of WW1 meant many of the garden's workers left to fight in the trenches. The garden was then lost for decades, until it was rediscovered in 1990.

The vegetable and flower garden are the stage for a glorious array of traditional crops and growing methods. Learn about exotic glasshouse fruits and Victorian crop rotation, and discover atmospheric working buildings, offering an intriguing insight into a lost world.

We spent most of our time there exploring the Victorian productive gardens, which encompass the vegetable and flower gardens. The variety and scale of produce was wonderful to see… courgettes, beans, peas, onions, salads, squashes, strawberries and pears all jostled for space, ready to supply the tearoom with fresh, seasonal produce. The most extraordinary greenhouse I have ever seen is home to peaches, apricots and grapes. In the flower garden, swathes of sweet peas danced alongside colourful cornflowers, cosmos, agapanthus, verbena, foxgloves and roses.

This exuberant garden hosts a riot of luxuriant foliage, outstanding trees, exotic plantings and inspiring views, drawing the imagination on a journey from our temperate shores.

In contrast to the formality of the productive gardens, the jungle hosts a steep, sub-tropical valley. In this microclimate, bamboo, banana plantations, giant rhubarb, tree ferns and palms tower above the walkways. The wider estate is home to pastureland where Dexter cattle roam, and woodlands where Heligan timber is planked at the sawmill and used in the wood project to produce furniture and decorative items or turned into charcoal.

Huge thanks to The Lost Garden of Heligan, who gifted us tickets to the gardens. As always, views expressed are entirely my own and we would thoroughly recommend visiting this beautiful garden.

GiveawayThe Lost Gardens of Heligan have generously offered Weald readers the chance to win a family ticket to the gardens (2 adults and up to 3 children, valid for one year) as well as a copy of 'The Lost Gardens of Heligan' by Tim Smit. To win, follow the instructions below. The giveaway is open worldwide and closes on 10th August 2015 when a winner will be chosen at random. Good luck!